Builder's Aviation Project Is Ready To Fly At Melbourne Airport

MELBOURNE — After a year's delay, a Fort Lauderdale development company is ready to begin building the first phase of a $20 million to $30 million aviation complex at Melbourne Regional Airport.

Holland Builders Inc. will start site preparation for its Sheltair- Melbourne development next month and will begin construction on the first set of hangars by mid-November, company official Bill Webb said.

The first phase of the project will cost $7 million to $9 million and will include 23 buildings for storing personal and corporate aircraft, Webb said, as well as a headquarters that will sell fuel and provide maintenance.

One group of buildings -- seven hangars for corporate aircraft, four ''T- hangars'' with bays for private planes, and the service operation -- should be completed in about six months, he said.

The timetable for the rest of the three-phase project depends on the success of the company's marketing efforts, Webb said. Holland Builders already has found occupants for the seven larger hangars, he said.

The original plans for Sheltair-Melbourne called for 250 hangars, many equipped with living areas and other amenities, as well as 100,000 square feet of office space, a hotel and a restaurant.

The developers won approval from the Brevard County Commission in February 1986 for an $8 million industrial-development bond issue to finance the first phase, which was to start by midyear. But the company later decided to secure a bank loan, Webb said, because guidelines imposed by the bond issue would have been too restrictive.

The change in financing and the process of obtaining various government approvals slowed the project's progress, he said.

Holland Builders, which owns three Sheltair complexes in South Florida, has leased 107 acres on the north side of Melbourne Regional Airport for its fourth development.